Chapter 20: Business Planning
The noise of dawn had now settled into its familiar urban rhythm — a score played daily without rehearsal. Thin, dusty shafts of sunlight angled through the city's narrow lanes, bouncing off crumbling plaster facades and flickering through the spokes of bicycles. Down below, newspaper boys pedaled past in quick bursts, their open-throated shouts of headlines mixing with the metallic clink of milk bottles, the bark of street dogs, and the far-off honk of a hand-painted bus lurching through morning traffic.
From the wrought-iron balcony of his residence, Vikram leaned lightly against the railing. To him, what others dismissed as the noise of an awakening city was something else entirely — not disorder, but organized chaos. Every cry, every wheel-turn, every vendor's exchange had a rhythm of its own.
And rhythm, Vikram understood, could be mapped. Controlled. Exploited.
As the breeze shifted, a soft chime brushed against his thoughts — a private mental channel opening in the back of his mind. Mark II was calling.
***
Supply Chain Foundations
> Mark II:"Sir, we have secured the land for production factories and bottling plants in Bombay, Ahmedabad, Delhi, Calcutta, and Chennai."
Vikram's eyes narrowed fractionally. In less than three weeks since the order, procurement at five key metropolitan points was not just underway, but completed. That was speed. That was reach.
> Vikram: "Good. Go on."
> Mark II:"Construction has already begun at all sites. All required licenses for the production of the seven beverage flavors have been approved. Regulatory inspections were cleared without delay."
No one on the outside would know that the "smoothness" of those approvals had been heavily lubricated by memory-adjusted officials — not fear-driven obedience, but genuine belief that DreamWorks Beverages was essential to national growth.
Below, he watched a street hawker weave expertly through a lane with a dented but steady brass tray of steaming chai glasses, moving as if by instinct. Good systems did not need force to keep moving — just invisible guidance.
***
Vertical Integration Begins
> Mark II: "Additionally, we have purchased 600 hectares of agricultural land for sugarcane cultivation at ₹51 lakh. This will strengthen internal supply of refined sugar for beverage manufacturing."
Vikram already knew the logic — vertical integration. Control the inputs, control the price. Seasonal highs and lows, hoarding by middlemen — all of it would be irrelevant when the fields themselves bore his cane.
> Mark II: "Orders have been placed for glass bottle production machines, industrial washing units, filling and capping systems, and labeling presses — sourced from both local industrial houses and high-grade suppliers in Japan and West Germany. Deliveries will commence in staggered lots over the next six months."
Japanese precision engineering for bottling lines, German reliability for labeling rigs, and Indian steel for the frames — no one would look twice at these imports. To outsiders, it would be "modernisation"; to Vikram, it was the layering of decades-ahead efficiency under 1970-quality packaging.
Vikram smiled faintly, only replying, "Efficient as always. Keep the supply lines tight."
***
Media Expansion – Controlling the Narrative
He straightened, the look in his dark eyes turning sharper.
> Vikram: "Begin acquisition of top-ranking local-language newspapers in every state. I want this done before 31st March 1971."
He could see the implications already — not the slow propaganda of party politics, but the quiet shaping of mass vocabulary. Editorial boards that believed they were pursuing independence would slowly align with a philosophical consistency: pro-India, pro-development, anti-fracture. Distributed across Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, Gujarati, Urdu, Assamese, Marathi — a reach no ministry could censor without looking tyrannical.
Mark II's confirmation was immediate.
***
DreamWorks Publishing & Cultural Anchors
> Vikram: "Recruit India's best storytellers and illustrators for the publishing arm. We go operational by 1st January 1971."
The pipeline was simple:
- Start with novels and comics, both urban serials and rural sagas.
- By mid-1971, prepare a children's moral-hero series rooted in Indian history.
- By late 1971, adapt the historical cycle like Ramayan and Mahabharat.
> Vikram: "By the end of next year's first half, production starts for the first animated film cycle — eleven-part series covering the Ramayan. One release every year starting 1972. Big screen. Statewide dubbing. National calendar events built around each release."
This wasn't nostalgia; it was cultural inoculation. Eleven years of scripted moral identity, wrapped in spectacle, song, and story. Generations would grow up already aligned.
***
Galaxy Electronics – The Consumer Frontier
His voice cooled into sharp instruction.
> Vikram: "Establish Galaxy Electronics. Under it, set up an R&D department for consumer electronics. Start hiring engineers immediately — the best available within rail travel. Begin building factories in Mumbai, Bengaluru, and Calcutta. These units must have their management complexes on-site."
> Initial projects:
> - Arcade games (cover-branded, discrete entry) inspired by the early success of Atari's Pong — but adapted to 1970 Indian markets in durable cabinet form and also to export the game before atari develops and get the global copyright for the game design and idea.
> - High-quality quartz Watches and wristwatches to replace unreliable mechanical imports.
> - Video players and recorders patterned on Betamax/VHS principles, discreetly tested inside institutional clients first.
> - Pocket calculators for educators, accountants, engineering students — slim, portable, aimed at urban professional use.
> "If you identify other viable market-space innovations, add them — but keep all prototypes away from public eye until the launch window."
Mark II's voice was steady as ever, "I will make the necessary arrangements."
These products, Vikram knew, would surface in gradual waves — rolling out as "first-of-its-kind" Indian engineering. No one needed to know they bore the DNA of a future pulled decades forward.
***
He set his coffee cup down, gaze shifting from the organised garden pathways below to the notebook open on his teak desk. The day's light was growing stronger, flooding the street in a pale gold that lent even the cracked plaster and tangled wires a sense of purpose.
So much would rise in the public eye soon — factories, brands, products.
But no one would see the machine he was building underneath it all:
- Supply chain farms feeding beverage plants.
- Press houses and newsrooms embedding cultural narratives.
- Studios and theatres controlling what the nation watched.
- Electronics factories shaping what the nation used.
- A publishing empire carving the moral memory of a generation.
To the street below, it was another morning.
But to Vikram, every ticking clock hand was the sound of gears tightening, unseen in the dark.
***